The present invention relates to improvements in apparatus and methods of filling flexible containers and, in particular, to improvements in apparatus for advancing the filling spouts of such containers into a filling station in an apparatus designed to handle containers connected together seriatim in a continuous row.
This invention is an improvement over the apparatus which is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,120,134, which issued Oct. 17, 1978, to William R. Scholle, and is assigned to Scholle Corporation. The specification of that patent provides useful background information helpful in understanding the context in which the present invention operates and, for this reason, that patent is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
As described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,120,134, the prior art provides filling equipment which includes (a) conveyors for directing the continuous web formed by interconnected containers from a supply carton or other location onto a platform adjacent the filling station; (b) guides for aligning the filling spout of each container as it moves along the platform; (c) a mechanism for uncapping each container if it is capped during empty shipment, filling the container, and replacing the cap to seal the container; (d) a mechanism to seal off the spout and thereby exclude foreign matter from the container during the time between removal of the filling nozzle and capping of the filled container; and (e) means for holding each successive filling spout in position beneath the filling nozzle and for releasing such filling spouts after each container is filled. As described in this patent, the container at the filling location rests either on a driven conveyor or on an inclined passive conveyor so that, as each filling spout is capped and released at the filling station, the filled container is transported away from the filling station, either by gravity or by operation of the power conveyor, and pulls with it the web of empty interconnected containers behind it.
In either of these embodiments, a substantial time lapse occurs between the release of one filling spout and the engagement of the next adjacent filling spout at the filling station. Thus, in the case of the gravity driven embodiment, when a filled container is released at the filling station, there is a lapse of time as the filled container accelerates down the inclined passive conveyor, and this acceleration is restricted, not only by the mass of the continuous web attached to the filled container, but also by the inertia of rotating guide members and the friction between the continuous web of material and the guide elements which guide the web from the supply container to the machine platform.
The use of a power conveyor may increase the acceleration of the filled container away from the filling station to some extent, but even with this embodiment, there is a significant time lag between the release of a first filling spout and the engagement of the next successive filling spout at the filling station, reducing the overall efficiency of the equipment and the speed at which a continuous web of containers may be filled.